To: Dale K. Weighill, Governmental Operations Committee Chairperson
From: Domonique Clemons, Genesee County Clerk and Register of Deeds
title
RE: Approval of a request by Genesee County's Clerk/Register to update the Election Programming Fees Schedule
recommendation
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED:
Approval of the fee schedule for Jurisdiction Election programming and support.
BACKGROUND:
The office of the Genesee County Clerk and Register of Deeds statutorily provides support to local city and township clerks throughout the election process. This includes creating, proofing, printing and delivering ballots to jurisdictions, providing certain election supplies, training poll workers and programming election software and equipment for every election. Our office works closely with our local clerks to go above and beyond the statutory requirements of technical assistance, to have strong relationships and provide support through all aspects of the election. It is the understanding of this office that the fee for programming elections and printing ballots has been charged back to the jurisdictions at a cost of $300 per election.
DISCUSSION:
$300 per election does not come close to covering the staff time for handling these critical election tasks but is also an unequitable fee. The City of Clio for example has 1 precinct and under 5000 voters. That means they have 1 ballot style that our office must program for $300, However larger jurisdictions such as the City of Flint have over 20 different ballot styles to be programmed for a single election at the same cost. We are proposing a dynamic pricing schedule that would charge each jurisdiction by the number of ballot styles they need programmed. Every election, Jurisdictions may have various number of ballot styles depending on precinct splits and the number of questions on the ballot. This proposal would allow them to pay a smaller fee for small elections, and a larger fee for large elections that pose a larger burde...
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